Authorities on Thursday, April 30, arrested a St. Petersburg mother and charged her with aggravated child manslaughter in connection with the death of her 2-year-old son, who was struck and killed by a pickup truck last October, officials said. The arrest follows an investigation into the toddler\u2019s death on 49th Avenue North near 80th Street North. Neighbors and witnesses told investigators the children had been playing in a front yard next to the roadway.<\/p>\n
Crash details<\/p>\n
The Florida Highway Patrol said the child wandered from a nearby home and walked into the path of a Ford F-450 that was traveling eastbound on 49th Avenue North west of 80th Street North. Troopers said the boy died at the scene. The driver, a 34-year-old Valrico man, was not identified by name in reports. These details were contained in trooper reports, as reported by FOX 13 Tampa Bay<\/a>.<\/p>\n Arrest and affidavit<\/p>\n According to WTSP<\/a>, the arrest affidavit names 32-year-old Alejandra Cruz Segundo and says witnesses told investigators she let her son and his siblings play unsupervised in the front yard next to the roadway. The document states that Ms. Cruz Segundo \u201cshould have known\u201d leaving young children unsupervised near a roadway could have caused them serious injury or death. She was booked on a single charge of aggravated child manslaughter, the report says.<\/p>\n Victim identified<\/p>\n The boy was identified as Damian Alexander Cruz-Segundo. An obituary published by Meadowlawn Funeral Home and posted on Dignity Memorial<\/a> lists his birth as Jan. 24, 2023, and his death as Oct. 29, 2025.<\/p>\n What the charge means<\/p>\n In Florida, aggravated manslaughter of a child is classified as a first-degree felony under state law and can carry severe prison terms if convicted. The statute that covers manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter spells out the elevated penalty for causing the death of a person under 18 by culpable negligence; penalties are set by Florida\u2019s sentencing statutes. Florida Statutes Chapter 782<\/a> outlines the offense and related penalties.<\/p>\n Court records did not list formal filings or a bond amount at the time of publication. The case will proceed through the local court system as prosecutors review the arrest affidavit. We will update this story as more information becomes available from law enforcement or prosecutors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities on Thursday, April 30, arrested a St. Petersburg mother and charged her with aggravated child manslaughter in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-254371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}